


Neo Fantasy Online -The Mage and the Bard-

by remipachu



Series: KaoMaya Bandori Rarepair Week [5]
Category: BanG Dream! (Anime), BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Gamer Maya, Gaming, Kaoru is a bard, Liberties taken with NFO gameplay, Neither of them have played NFO before but they do their best, Neo Fantasy Online, RPG
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:42:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24559375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/remipachu/pseuds/remipachu
Summary: Kaoru and Maya go to the local Net Cafe to play Neo Fantasy Online.
Relationships: Seta Kaoru/Yamato Maya
Series: KaoMaya Bandori Rarepair Week [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1771021
Kudos: 7
Collections: Bandori Rarepair Week (2019-present)





	Neo Fantasy Online -The Mage and the Bard-

“Kitten, remind me of how you heard of this place again?” Kaoru asked.

“Hina-san told me about it!” Maya replied, “Apparently Sayo-san plays this game here pretty often. Hina-san tried it herself, she said it was a lot of fun. So I thought I’d try it out!”

“Not that I am unappreciative of your company, quite the opposite in fact,” Kaoru started, “But why have me accompany you? Surely you are aware that I am not much of a ‘gamer’.”

“Well, we’re good friends, aren’t we?” Maya asked, giving a nervous giggle.

“Of course, little kitten,” Kaoru replied quickly, “But could you not have invited Hina? Nay, anyone from your band?”

“Well, I thought it would be more fun if I brought you…” Maya murmured, bouncing on her heels a bit, “Hina-san is already so good at the game she’d leave me behind. I don’t think Aya-san or Chisato-san would enjoy it very much. And I thought about inviting Eve-san, but she had work today.”

“Well, it is an honor to spend time with the one and only Yamato Maya.” Kaoru declared with a bow. Maya giggled, her confidence restored.

“Let’s go, then!” Maya exclaimed before leading the two of them in.

It was a pretty nice net cafe. Not only did they have a bunch of vending machines, there was a small kitchen to make food. Maya walked up to the counter and asked for a basic reservation for two people. Once she had her card, she and Kaoru went and ordered drinks for the two of them: an iced latte for Kaoru and fruit tea with coconut milk for Maya. Luckily, there was no one else in the area where the two were to play, so they settled down quickly.

“Okay, I think this is the website with the download…” Maya muttered, navigating to the download page. By all accounts it seemed right, and she corroborated with Hina by text to confirm. When it checked out, she sent Kaoru the link on the pre-installed instant messenger and began the download. It was fairly quick, but the actual install took a little longer. After about 20 minutes, it was all finally completed, and both Maya and Kaoru launched the game.

There seemed to be some sort of fancy event going on, but it was only for high-level players. Not even a “bring a newbie and get this cool item!” sort of thing. When the game finished loading, a big sparkly button labelled “Create a new character!” popped up. Since that was the obvious option, that was were the two started.

“Wow, this is a pretty crazy game…” Maya mumbled, amazed. “There’s a lot going on. I think I’ll just stick to a mage class though…”

“What do the ‘classes’ do, dear?” Kaoru asked.

“They’re like, different types of characters,” Maya replied, “Some are slow but they can take a lot of damage, some are fast and hit hard but can’t take a lot of hits. If you look below the name and picture, there should be a description?”

“Ah, I see…” Kaoru replied, her voice trailing off She perked up when she came upon one class. “Oh, there is a bard!”

“Yeah, I think that’s what Yukina-san played when she and Roselia played together!” Maya giggled, “Bards can do both healing and attack magic, but they’re kind of in the middle when it comes to HP. It looks like there are a couple sub-classes of bard too, so you can do more healing or more attacking depending on which you choose.”

“Maya, you said you had no prior experience with this game, yes?” Kaoru asked, looking at Maya curiously. Maya nodded. “You seem to have a fair bit of knowledge, regardless.”

“Huhehe… I’ve played a few other RPGs before…” Maya laughed, “A lot of them are pretty similar. I just hadn’t tried NFO before because it has a pretty complicated class system and I wanted to learn a bit about it beforehand.”

“I see!” Kaoru replied, “Then I shall be in your care.” Maya blushed at that.

“Well, let’s pick our classes then, huhehehe,” she continued, “I’ll be a mage. Normally I’d say you should probably choose a tank or something to make up for my lack of health, but I think you’ll have more fun as a bard!”

“Then a bard I shall be,” Kaoru responded, clicking to choose the bard class. Maya chose the mage class, then clapped and rubbed her hands together.

“This is my favorite part,” she smiled, “I heard NFO has one of the best character creators of any RPG!”

The character creator loaded right after she said that. It was robust indeed, with a bunch of different presets as well as sliders for each individual feature. Maya chuckled in anticipation before getting to work. She managed to make someone who looked a lot like herself, but with a few tweaks: green streaks in her hair, a light dusting of luminescent freckles, and brighter green eyes than her own. When she was about finished making her character, she glanced over to Kaoru, who was having a bit of trouble.

“Here, since you don’t have a lot of experience with this sort of thing, I recommend picking some presets that look somewhat like what you want and then modifying them from there,” Maya suggested, leaning over and reaching around Kaoru to take her mouse and guide it to the preset options. Kaoru, rather than watching what Maya was doing, looked at Maya. “Kaoru-san? Are you paying attention?”

“O-of course, my kitten,” Kaoru replied, quickly turning to face her screen. “Oh, that looks more like me!”

“Yeah!” Maya grinned, “Now you can use the sliders to make it a little better. Like, you can take in the nose, or move your eyes a little closer together.”

“Thank you, my dear,” Kaoru thanked with a dramatic flair of her hands. Maya gave a faux-exasperated smile and moved back to her own computer.

The two spent a little more time in the character creator, and then it was time to launch into the game. Unlike with Roselia, where the event quest allowed the newbies to bypass the tutorial, Maya and Kaoru had to do their tutorials separately. For Maya, who was already familiar with the basic controls of RPGs, it was a little tedious, but useful to learn the idiosyncrasies of NFO. Kaoru, on the other hand, took a little longer, due to her inexperience with games like these. She got the hang of it pretty quickly, however, and by the time the tutorials were over and the both of them were dumped into Departure Village, Kaoru was a bit more confident with the game.

“Alright! We should be pretty near the first quest, if NFO is anything like the other games I’ve played,” Maya said, taking a look around. NFO was a really pretty game, with advanced graphics in a fully-3D world. There were new players everywhere, all wearing the basic gear of their classes. Maya located Kaoru, and clicked on her to send a party request, giggling at her name, ShakespeareFan2802.

“‘New party request’?” Kaoru read off of her screen. “Oh, is DrummerYamato you? What is a party request?”

“Yeah, that’s me!” Maya replied, “If we’re in a party together, we can complete quests together instead of separately. It’ll be convenient because with some quests you have to get a bunch of items, and it’ll only take half as long if we do it together>”

“I see,” Kaoru stated, “Then I shall accept your request.” Kaoru clicked the “accept” button, and a little icon of their characters appeared in the corner of her screen. Maya quickly renamed their party to “KaoMaya” and pinged Kaoru to follow her.

“The first quest is in this building, I think!” Maya said. Entering, Maya saw that she was right. There was an NPC with “Jake” written over it, and an exclamation point above the name. Maya navigated to the NPC and read the dialogue to accept the quest. Simultaneously, the “New quest!” graphic appeared on Kaoru’s screen. “So now we have to go to the Rogolo Mine. From what I can see, it’s a beginner area. Do you remember your skills?”

“I do,” Kaoru answered with a nod before showing them to Maya. “With your spells and my music, we can conquer whatever monsters we happen upon!”

With a giggle from Maya, the two set out towards the mine. The path there seemed to be filled with ingredients for crafting and potion-making. Maya grabbed a few. At the end of the trail, there was a sign indicating the entrance to the Rogolo Mine, and a smaller sign saying “Caution! Monsters within!”.

The interior of the mine was lined with glowing jewels. It seemed to be arranged like a multi-floored maze. The first area didn’t have any monsters, but upon their entrance into the second room, they were accosted by a slime monster.

“Kaoru!” Maya called, “Watch my sides while I attack!” Standing back, Maya cast an attacking spell on the slime, then dodged its ensuing jump. Another spell flung its way, and the slime was defeated, leaving some collectible slime jelly, which Maya picked up. Maya’s character gained a little experience, with Kaoru getting a fraction of it.

“Ah, I gained experience points without fighting?” Kaoru asked.

“That’s one of the perks of being in a party!” Maya chirped, “We each get experience from the other’s kills, as long as we’re in the same or adjacent rooms. I think it’s a pretty good system, unlike some games I’ve played…”

It didn’t take too much longer for the pair to reach Linda, who they were to deliver a letter to. Maya let Kaoru take the initiative on that one, and before long they were heading back to Departure Village with a new letter in hand.

“Why does Jake not simply deliver the letter to Linda himself?” Kaoru asked as they battled another slime monster.

“I think he can’t fight as well as player characters can,” Maya replied, “Or at least that’s the in-universe explanation. Out of universe, well, if all the NPCs did everything there wouldn’t be a game to play! I think there are some quests where they accompany and help you, though.”

“I see, I see,” Kaoru hummed, “There must be quite a lot of danger in this universe. How do the inhabitants protect themselves?”

“To be honest, I’m not really sure,” Maya answered, “Maybe there are some that can fight, and they protect the villages and cities?”

“Perhaps so,” Kaoru agreed.

By the time that Kaoru and Maya delivered the letter to Jake, their computer time was up. They felt that they were at a good stopping point, so they exited the game and shut the computers down. Maya paid for the two of them, and they left.

“So, do you think you want to play together again?” Maya asked.

“I would find that quite agreeable, dear Maya,” Kaoru replied, giving Maya a smile. Maya blushed deeply at that, her heart racing. Oh my god, had she really just spent that much time alone with Kaoru??

“Well, um, that’s good!” she stuttered, “I think I oughtta get home now, see you Kaoru-san!”

Maya sped off, her face steaming at how unexpectedly bold she had been, leaving Kaoru alone and very confused.

**Author's Note:**

> I really like the idea of Maya being a gamer honestly, not as hardcore as Ako or Rinko but honestly up there. Maybe I'll write something where she plays with them and Sayo at some point lol


End file.
